'Healthier than ever'

Roto Authority has a simple and brilliant two-part series on players' spring training cliches promises. Writer David Chase (not that David Chase) looked at all the players who, during Spring Training 2008, claimed to have lost weight, put on more muscle, found a new workout regiment that had them feeling better than ever, were working on a new pitch, were taking martial arts, etc. He followed up to see who improved and who got worse.

Yeah. Pretty much an even split, with a few more players getting worse than getting better.

Some highlights: Manny Ramirez' great season after becoming a "Maniacal workout warrior," and Dustin Pedroia, who added "a layer of muscle" and won the American League MVP award. Lowlights are aplenty. Mike Sweeney was "Healthier than ever due to 'Egoscue stretching method,'" though it didn't do him any good; his 126 at-bats were a career low. John Patterson said he knew he was "finally healthy," and pitched all of 31 innings. Nick Johnson and Rocco Baldelli said the same.

Humans are great at finding explanations for everything. My favorite example was Kevin Mench, who blamed his early season struggles in 2006 on having the wrong size of shoes. He got new shoes, then shockingly homered in seven straight games, driving in 21 runs in the first eight games with the new kicks. It'sgottabetheshoes! Then he hit two home runs in the second half, and eight the entire next season, and zero in 2008. Stupid shoes.

Here's part one, and here's part two, of Chase's series in Roto Authority. Read and keep them in mind in two months, when every player is pledging to steal 30 bags or set a career high in games played.

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